I can't shake the feeling that if an AI made an entire AAA video game, from start to release, the result would look a lot like Borderlands 4. It's totally the functional framework of a game. And yet every single element of it is just a bit off.

Avernum 4: Greed and Glory is out for iPad Dec. 3, 2025! Our popular return to Avernum, a unique indie RPG series set in a vast underworld nation, will become portable! Fight a monster plague. Explore the depths. Be loyal or treacherous. Get rich and famous! Huge & full of fun.

A very classy move.

I somehow missed this very kind review from Digitally Downloaded for our newest RPG, Avernum 4: Greed and Glory. Thank you very much! digitallydownloaded.net/2025/11/review…

For Screenshot Saturday, another promo shots for iPad Avernum 4: Greed and Glory. Our new, well-reviewed, indie turn-based RPG should be out for your handheld on December 3rd. PC version is doing great and you can find it here ... store.steampowered.com/app/3882020/Av…

Metaprogression is the game designer's way of saying, "I'm not actually sure how to balance this mess."

This is a kind comment and I appreciate it. Alas, the mobile games market, in its current aggravating state, is annually a $125-135 BILLION dollar business. It is not going to change.

New Blog Post! - Video games are machines for affecting the human brain. So let's find tricks to make it easier! Remember, players play with the brains they have, not the brains you want them to have. Avoid learning how their brains work at your peril. api.omarshehata.me/substack-proxy…

I'm about 7 bosses into Silksong, and I think the difficulty debate about it is messed up. People conflate difficulty and just being annoying and eating time. Yeah, it's a hard game. Took me 30 tries to beat my most recent boss. But it's fair and predictable and I learned and

For Screenshot Saturday, yet another promo shot for iPad Avernum 4: Greed and Glory. Our cool new indie turn-based RPG in a vast subterranean world is out December 3rd. Until then, the very well-reviewed Steam version is at: store.steampowered.com/app/3882020/Av…

I'll have to write more about this later. But when you're consuming peoples' valuable and limited leisure time? If you have something important to communicate to the player, you should almost always do it explicitly instead of implicitly. JRPGs, in my LONG experience, really

A great question! One I already have a first draft of a blog post about. Obviously, video games are not "fundamentally pointless." Maybe you play them for dopamine hits. Or to use all your concentration and intelligence/reflexes to beat a challenge. Or experience a good story in